Sunday, November 24, 2013

2-0; Work Smart, Not Hard!

The old saying: Work smart, not hard,
summarises Arsenal’s performance against Southampton at the weekend.

It was crucial to not lose the game after
the somewhat, undeserved defeat to Manchester United before the international
break. Southampton have had a very impressive defensive recordthis season but the loss of Lovren was a huge blow.

Arsenal were boosted by the return of Theo who,
though fit, started the game on the bench. Wenger went with the combination of
Wilshere, Ozil, Arteta, Ramsey and Cazorla in midfield which suggested he
wanted to play a very tactical and narrow game against Pochettino’s side.

The Saints defended well in the first half
though they seemed to lack a plan whenever they found themselves with
possession in Arsenal’s half. The Gunners couldn’t get a momentum going in the
first half while conceding a worryingly large number of corners and set pieces.
There was a sense that if Southampton were going to score, it would come from a
set piece.

Southampton also forced a couple of good
saves from Szczesny though the signs for Arsenal were positive as they limited
to opposition to long range shots.

The key moment in the game was Giroud’s
goal. I will save describing the rather comical incident as the goal has been
repeatedly played on several places and added to the collections of goalkeeping
mishaps.

It was the key moment as firstly, until
that point, the away side were content with keeping the score at 0-0. They had
confidence in their defending ability yet, that moment changed everything and
Southampton found themselves in a situation where they would have to play more
expansively.

Another reason it was a key moment is
because the incident highlighted Southampton’s weakness of crumbling under
pressure. Wenger certainly took notes throughout the first half and his side
came out with in the second half with a very clear plan on how to secure the 3
points.

Southampton struggled to get themselves
into the game in the second half. Every occasion the Saints ventured into the
Arsenal half, the player on the ball came under immense pressure, especially
from the likes of Ramsey and Wilshere. This was not helped by Boruc’s
consistently poor distribution throughout the game.

In the end, it was a deserved victory and
the Gunners are continuing to prove the doubters wrong. Arsenal have received a
lot of unfair criticism after the defeat at Old Trafford where I felt we were
unlucky to not come away with a draw.

And Giroud was quite comfortably the man of
the match. Aside from his 2 goals, he worked tirelessly up front, always
creating space and being a thorn for the opposition defence. The dashboard
below shows Giroud won possession in the Arsenal box 4 times which is very good
defensive work for a striker and the Frenchman is also repaying Wenger’s faith
with goals and assists.

A final word on referee Mark Clattenburg
who had a very poor game: There was a moment in the first half when he stopped
the play for offside while Arsenal had an advantage to attack on the break. The
frustration from the crowd was heard all around and Clattenburg looked to the
skies with a constipated face in despair at his own call. Not only did that sum
up his performance, it has been quite consistent with the level of refereeing in
the Premier League this season. We have suffered the Anthony Taylor treatment
against Villa at the start of the season and Clattenburg’s performance yesterday
is a reminder of that we have to be on top form to not let the officials define
the results.